A FORMER soldier who murdered teenager Elaine Doyle nearly three decades ago was jailed for at least 21 years yesterday.

John Docherty was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years for the murder of Elaine Doyle [PH]

John Docherty was sentenced to life following a 12-week trial which ended in June.

The 50-year-old Inverclyde Council driver, who claimed 41 other men could have been Elaine’s killers, cannot apply for parole until he is 70.

Jewellery shop assistant Elaine, 16, was discovered naked and strangled yards from her home in Greenock, Renfrewshire, in June 1986.

Docherty was arrested last year following a cold case review and found guilty of murdering Elaine as she walked home from a disco in Greenock’s Celtic Supporters’ Club.

Scotland’s most senior prosecutor, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, QC, was based in Greenock at the time of Elaine’s death.

After seeing Docherty sentenced, Mr Mulholland said: “This ends a long search for justice for the Doyle family.

“Elaine was 16 at the time of her death. It deeply touched the people of Inverclyde and beyond, who never let her memory fade.”

This ends a long search for justice for the Doyle family. Elaine was 16 at the time of her death. It deeply touched the people of Inverclyde and beyond, who never let her memory fade

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, QC

In 2012 DNA samples were found on sticky tape used to lift hairs and fibres from Elaine’s body. The techniques required to match DNA were not available at the time of Elaine’s death but cold case detectives reviewed thousands of statements and discovered Docherty had not been questioned after the murder.

When he was asked for a DNA sample, Docherty agreed and appeared “stunned” when he was later charged with Elaine’s murder.

During his trial, it emerged Docherty, then 21, and a friend had been at the Celtic Supporters’ Club, and while the friend was interviewed and named Docherty as being with him, officers never approached him.

The ex-Royal Engineer, who moved back to Greenock after leaving the Army, was one of 722 potential suspects and he was tested in May 2012. Docherty did not give evidence in his defence and his QC, Donald Findlay, branded the investigation “a shambles”, after hearing a blanket from a police car was draped over Elaine. He claimed the crime scene had been contaminated and the DNA evidence was not reliable. But the jury disagreed and found Docherty guilty.

Jailing Docherty, trial judge Lord Stewart said: “The killing was a brutal one and had a terrible effect on her family.”

Elaine’s mother Maureen was at the High Court in Glasgow for Docherty’s sentencing. Her husband Jack died two years ago.